Harper Collins is proud to present its new range of best-loved essential classics Here is one of Thomas Hardy’s most popular novels soon to be released as a major motion picture in May 2015 ‘I shall do one thing in this life – one thing certain – that is love you & long for you & keep wanting you till I die’ Independent & spirited Bathsheba Everdene owns the hearts of three men Striving to win her love in different ways their relationships with Bathsheba complicate her life in bucolic Wessex – & cast shadows over their own With the morals & expectations of rural society weighing heavily upon her Bathsheba experiences the torture of unrequited love & betrayal & discovers how random acts of chance & tragedy can dramatically alter life’s course The first of Hardy’s novels to become a major literary success Far from the Madding Crowd explores what it means to live & to love